(This is a rought draft of a paper which I am writing for my environmental ethics class.)
In his book The Ultimate Resource Julian Simon presents a number of arguments in support of claim that natural resources are infinite. In this paper I will limit my attention to his argument by induction from history. First I will attempt to clearly articulate what Simon’s thesis actually is. Second, I will consider which arguments are crucial for Simon’s case. Finally, it will be argued that the inductive inferences which Simon makes are unreliable due to their being drawn from a biased as well as only partially relevant sample of history. A less biased view of history, I will conclude, supports the conservationist’s position. (more…)
